In this paper we study the geometry of manifolds with vector cross products and its complexification. First we develop the theory of instantons and branes and study their deformations. For example they are (i) holomorphic curves and Lagrangian submanifolds in symplectic manifolds and (ii) associative submanifolds and coassociative submanifolds in G2-manifolds. Second we classify K¨ahler manifolds with the complex analog of the vector cross product, namely they are Calabi-Yau manifolds and hyperk¨ahler manifolds. Furthermore we study instantons, Neumann branes and Dirichlet branes on these manifolds. For example they are special Lagrangian submanifolds with phase angle zero, complex hypersurfaces and special Lagrangian submanifolds with phase angle pi/2 in Calabi-Yau manifolds.

The Bieberbach estimate, a pivotal result in the classical theory of univalent functions, states that any injective holomorphic function f on the open unit disc D satisfies |f′′(0)| ≤ 4|f′(0)|. We generalize the Bieberbach estimate by proving a version of the inequality that applies to all injective smooth conformal immersions f : D → Rn, n ≥ 2. The new estimate involves two correction terms. The first one is geometric, coming from the second fundamental form of the image surface f(D). The second term is of a dynamical nature, and involves certain Riemannian quantities associated to conformal attractors. Our results are partly motivated by a conjecture in the theory of embedded minimal surfaces.

We present a brief but nearly self-contained proof of a formula for the Weil-Petersson Hessian of the geodesic length of a closed curve (either simple or not simple) on a hyperbolic surface. The formula is the sum of the integrals of two naturally defined positive functions over the geodesic, proving convexity of this functional over Teichmuller space (due to Wolpert (1987)). We then estimate this Hessian from below in terms of local quantities and distance along the geodesic. The formula extends to proper arcs on punctured hyperbolic surfaces, and the estimate to laminations. Wolpert’s result that the Thurston metric is a multiple of the Weil-Petersson metric directly follows on taking a limit of the formula over an appropriate sequence of curves. We give further applications to upper bounds of the Hessian, especially near pinching loci, recover through a geometric argumentWolpert’s result on the convexity of length to the half-power, and give a lower bound for growth of length in terms of twist.

In this paper, we observe that the brane functional studied in hep-th/9910245 can be used to generalize some of the works that Schoen and I [4] did many years ago. The key idea is that if a three dimensional manifold M has a boundary with strongly positive mean curvature, the effect of this mean curvature can influence the internal geometry of M. For example, if the scalar curvature of M is greater than certain constant related to this boundary effect, no incompressible surface of higher genus can exist.

The limiting behavior of the normalized KÄahler-Ricci °ow for manifolds with positive ¯rst Chern class is examined under certain stability conditions. First, it is shown that if the Mabuchi Kenergy is bounded from below, then the scalar curvature converges uniformly to a constant. Second, it is shown that if the Mabuchi Kenergy is bounded from below and if the lowest positive eigenvalue of the ¹@y ¹@ operator on smooth vector ¯elds is bounded away from0 along the °ow, then the metrics converge exponentially fast in C1 to a KÄahler-Einstein metric.